A Nigerian journalist named Agba Jalingo has been remanded in custody and will remain there until Thursday, March 30.
Jalingo was charged with defaming Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross River State, and his wife Elizabeth Ayade, who is the sister of Frank Ayade.
Today, March 27, Justice Zainab Bage Abubakar of the Federal High Court in Abuja remanded the journalist to Kuje prison for cybercrime. According to reports, Justice Abubakar refused to allow Jalingo’s attorneys to ask for bail.
The publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Jalingo, was taken into custody by the police on August 22, 2019, after they had besieged his Lagos home for several hours over allegations that he had slandered Elizabeth.
In a court document submitted on December 6, 2022, before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the police alleged that the publication by the journalist against Elizabeth was false and that it was made public to annoy, offend, and humiliate her.
When the trial resumed on Monday, March 27, 2023, the judge ruled that Agba Jalingo should be brought before a judge and have his one-count charge read to him.
The charge sheet read: “That you Agba Jalingo male of No.14 Oremeji Street, Ojudu Alapere Lagos on 30th June 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did intentionally publish online at Cross River Watch and alleged that one Mrs. Elizabeth Ayade procured the services of one Pascal Aboh to write Nigeria Law School Examination Bar Examination for her, the information you know to be false for the purpose of causing her annoyance, ill will and insult. You thereby committed an offense punishable under Section 24(1) b of the CYBERCRIMES (PROTECTION, PREVENTION ETC) ACT, 2015.